In their own words...

[bobbysocks]

heres one for buzz bomb about buzz bombs...

The buzz bomb season settled down late that afternoon. I was on the street, walking around aimlessly, when I heard a loud putter like a motorcycle. Suddenly the putter coughed and died. I had heard all about the V-1 buzz bombs from the pilot who had brought me over from France and I knew this buzz bomb was going to hit somewhere pretty close. You could sense that.
People stopped walking and stood rooted in their tracks. There came a kind of boom, then an ear-splitting roar. I felt the sidewalk beneath me move. Two blocks away I saw a building, lighted by fire, crumple into the street, and it seemed to me that tons of glass were crashing everywhere. There was something more terrifying about the robot pilot in a V-1 than there was when bombers came over with live pilots in them.There was an awful uncertainty...

An Englishman, who was standing mear me, said it was a good thing that D-Day came when it did of the Germans might have wiped London off the map with their buzz bombs. He said when the buzz bombs first started coming over, all the anti-aircraft guns in London would open upon them but after a week of this, the military decided not to shoot at them and maybe some of the bombs would go on past London, which they did. I was astonished at the casual way the Britisher talked. From his tone of voice, we might have been in the Savoy-Plaza Bar, having a Scotch-and-soda, and I wondered if we Americans would have stood up as well if the tables had been turned.

By this time the fire fighters, rescue squads, and the Home Guard were on the scene, and they all swept into action. I tried to do what I could to help but the English moved too swiftly for me. I walked back to my room at the hotel but not to sleep.

It didn't take London long to set up a good defense against the robot enemy. On later missions I saw great masses of balloons several thousand feet high in the air. These balloon barrages were centered southeast of London - between London and the Channel- and there was also a large concentration of guns placed in this area, which was known as "Flak Alley." This stretegy greatly eliminated the number of bombs that got over London.

The People were taking to the air raid shelters, as they had done during the blitz. In the early part of the afternoon the Londoners would begin making their makeshift beds in the shelters and in the corridors and stations of the subways. By 11:00P.M. one could hardly get on and off the subways for all the sleepers around.

We Americans tried to be pretty fatalistic about the buzz bombs. We wouldn't go to the air raid shelters. We figured sort of foolishly if our time had come, the bomb with our number on it would find us whereever we were - in the American Melody Bar or in the air raid shelter.

The night before I left London I had gone to bed early. I had spent hours at headquarters that day waiting to see the Colonel, only to be told nothing save to come back the following day. I was mortally knocking it off when the next thing I knew I was sitting squarely on my behind on the floor and there was the most awful rocking you've ever felt. For my money, the hotel was doing a Betty grable rhumba, and I clipped it down to the air raid shelter and spent the rest of the night there- to he**, with that stuff about your number being on it...

The buzz bombs seemed to pursue me. The next morning on my way to headquarters I could tell we were going to have an unwelcomed visitor. The people on the street were freezing up and waiting to see if they were going to have to fall flat on the sidewalk. Sure enough we had to fall flat, and it would have to be raining that morning.

The English showed a courageousness during the buzz bomb season that was unequaled by anyone else so far as my personal knowledge went. They'd go to work in the morning, not knowing if they'd have an office to work in, and in the evening when they started home they'd never know whether they had a wife or a home to come back to.

The uncertainty was far worse than when the bombers came over. The Britishers had warning then, but the buzz bomb was right there --bringing sudden slaughter, ravaged homes and buildings, and anguish and sorrow.

[bobbysocks]

TOP SECRET MISSION: PROJECT "ANVIL"
By: William W. Wells, 55th.FS, 20th.FG

It was one of those rare summer days in England, warm and sunny, August 12, 1944. On this day the 20th. Fighter Group flew two missions. The first one was east of the Seine River escorting B-17's on another bombing mission with our P-51s strafing their way back home hitting any moving form of transportation. The second mission, just east of paris, was similar to the first; bombing by heavies, fighter-bombing and then strafing targets of opportunity. Both were quite successful.
In the meantime, those pilots not on the main missions were on standby in their respective operations areas. About 4p.m., the phone in the 55th. Squadron Operation rang. Someone from Group Operations called to tell us to get a flight of four P-51's in the air at once and fly to a field called Winfarthing-Fersfield located about 15 miles southwest of Norwich, and about 60 miles east of Kings Cliffe. We were to report to a Commander Smith of the US Navy. Lt. John Klink and I with two other pilots (unknown at this time) took off as directed and reported to CommanderSmith, US Navy, at Fersfield for the mission briefing.

Commander Smith took us into the briefing room and closed the door. He began by saying that this mission was, next to the invasion of Normandy itself, the highest classified mission of the war. In fact it was 17 years after the war before the facts of this mission, called Project "Anvil" were made public. Needless to say, he swore all of us to secrecy.

Commander Smith told us of the extreme concern of the Allied High Command over the unleashing of the German V-1 and V-2 robot finds. For months, the Allies had made countless bombing strikes on suspected V-1 and V-2 launching sites without much success and yet with the loss of nearly 450 planes and 2,900 aviators. Some other means of stopping this onslaught was desperately needed.

It was for this reason that Project "Anvil" was conceived. The idea was to create a pilotless "drone" aircraft with some two tons of high explosives and, guided by remote control from another plane, send it crashing onto a launching site. This idea had previously been used in the Pacific Fleet where a specially designed drone had been loaded with explosives and directed against targets. Something bigger and more powerful was needed here.

Commander Smith explained how this Project "Anvil" was to be implememnted. He pointed out a PB4Y Liberator (B-24) painted all white parked on the side of the field. This he said, was our drone; but because of its heavy weight, it would have to have a pilot and co-pilot to take it off and get it set on course. After it was on course and before it reached the channel, the two pilots would bail out, leaving the PB4Y under the control of accompanying radio control planes.

He went on to tell us that the drone was loaded with 374 boxes, containing 55 pounds of Torpex each, and six Mark-9 demolition charges containing 100 pounds of TNT each. This came to 21,470 pounds of high explosives. He then told us of the other planes which were to participate in this project. The first plane to take off was an RP-38 photo ship, then a Mosquito photo recon ship, then two PV-1 Venturas, especially equipped with radio equipment, for guiding the drone. After this, the drone (PB4Y) itself would take off and finally the four P-51's. We were told to climb up and maintain about 1,500 feet above the PB4Y drone at all times until it was launched on to the target. We were then to accompany the PV-1's back to Fersfield base and report to Commander Smith.

At 5:52p.m. the aircraft proceeded to take off in their proper sequence. The drone leveled off at 2,000 feet; the photo planes went up to 15,000 feet; the PV-1's were also at 2,000 feet but about 200 feet on either side of the drone. We took our position at 3,500 fetand throttled way back, constantly turning so as not to over-run the drone.

The Nazi occupied island of Helgoland was the target, since this island was a proving ground and launch site for V-2 missiles. I'm sure all of the Allied pilots remember this island fortress in the North Sea. We drew flak from here every time we crossed the Danish coast.

The remote control system of the PV-1's and the drone were to be checked at five points. The first point "Abel" was over Framlingham, about 25 miles southeast of Fersfield. Then the drone would turn north to point "Baker" at Beccles, thence south to point "Charlie" at Clacton-on-Sea and on to point "X-Ray" near Manston airfield, wherethe PV-1s would take control and the two pilots would bail out. Then the drone would be directed to pont "Dog", about two miles south of Dover and thence toward the target some 350 miles to the northeast.

The drone and its control ships and the P-51s moved towad Checkpoint "Abel". Just before they reached Framlingham, the drone pilot signaled by radio that he was ready to conduct the first radio-control check. Point "Abel" was passed at 6:15 p.m. the group then turned left for point "Baker" over Beccles. We flew over Heveningham Hall, the home of Lord Huntingfield, crossed the Blyth River and could see the North Sea off our right wings. The tall tower of St. Michael's loomed ahead in the town of Beccles. At 6:20, the drone was over a field near the villages of St. Margaret and St. Lawrence. We, in the escort P-51's, were in a slow, lazy right turn and were looking right down on the drone directly below us. Suddenly it exploded in a searing orange ball of fire blowing us up into the air another 1,000 feet. A huge mushroom cloud boiled up to 25,000 feet and nothing remained of the drone or the two pilots.

We returned to Fersfield and landed. We told Commander Smith what had happened even though he could hear the blast and see the high cloud. He told us that, sadly enough, the same thing had happened the previous week to another drone. He also told us that the pilot, in this joint Navy-Army Project "Anvil", who had been on our mission was Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the Ambassador to the court of St. James, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., from Boston. Young Joe was an outstanding flier and had volunteered for this mission knowing full well how dangerous it was. A true hero, he was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr was the brother of late US president John F. Kennedy